Medicaid pays hospitals and doctors less than 60 percent of what private insurers pay. Indeed, Medicaid reimbursement rates are so low that hospitals, on average, lose money on every Medicaid patient they treat. As a result, most doctors refuse to see Medicaid patients, forcing the poor to get care through hospital emergency rooms. (Emergency rooms are required by federal law to treat all comers.) These patients can’t get access to routine checkups and preventive care, because doctors won’t see them. That, in turn, leads to poorer health outcomes. [link to blogs.forbes.com]